


Avengers Light

by Lady_Blackhawk



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: All ships are mostly canon or canon, But this is not a romance based fic, Multi, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-09-26 03:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9859418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Blackhawk/pseuds/Lady_Blackhawk
Summary: Title subject to change.Cassie is back in New York and going to college and the Young Avengers are all together again...well minus Eli. But soon an old foe returns to lay claim and the young heroes will have to band together, overcome their mistakes, and take out someone from their past. Will Eli be okay? Will the bad guy get what he wants?It is time for them to embrace the title and burden of being Avengers and avert a serious catastrophic event.Will have ethical and moral issues. Awesome team bonding and for two characters some long overdue sibling bonding.





	1. Return

**Author's Note:**

> Don't expect steady update schedule I'm supposed to be doing grad school homework....and yet, here I am.

Chapter 1

College. She was finally at college! No more mom and Blake driving her insane, no more craziness with her dad. This was it, she was at a college in New York City, her real home. Go to class during the day, do homework on the weekends and be a superhero the rest of the time. This could totally work and would be an incredible experience.

The dorms at Centennial University weren’t terribly specious for Freshmen living in Shooter Hall, but it had enough room for two beds, two small desks, and the little fridge Cassie had convinced her mother she needed, it sat in the corner between her bed and her desk. On top of it was the Keurig she had gotten as a graduation gift from Kate.

While enjoying the empty room, Cassie got to packing fairly quickly after pushing her mother out the door. She started with the most important part, putting up her Dazzler poster above her bed and decorating the remaining space with pictures of her friends. There was one of her and her dad, one of her with the entire Young Avengers gang, including Vision in his human form, taken a week before the events with Doctor Doom.

The entire team had gathered in the club house and just hung out, watching movies and then decided to all take a picture together because it was just that much fun to be around each other. She missed those times. She hadn’t heard from Eli at all, Tommy had arrived for one day on one of his stop overs after Kate had already been in town. He said something about telling Kate he was in space, but Cassie wasn’t sure why. They got pizza and hung out and caught up before he headed to Cuba as part of his next adventure. Billy and Teddy came to see her when she came to town to look at colleges. Billy didn’t say much, but it was good to see the two of them.

A part of her missed the Vision…. Jonas, she noted after looking at the photo, but a part of her had moved on. It had been hard, when she heard, but she supposed the one good thing about living in Miami was that she had time to heal…sort of.

The door swung open and a girl walked in with a giant suitcase, bigger than any Cassie had ever seen.

“Are you Cassie?” asked a girl.

“That’s me, you must be Ji-Eun (Jee-Yun) …did I pronounce that correctly?” asked Cassie getting off her bed.  

“That’s right. Thank you.” Said the girl. She was of Korean descent and a bit taller than Cassie. She parked her giant suitcase on the opposite side of the room and began to unpack her own things. She seemed nice enough, the two had talked on the phone after room assignments were posted and Cassie explained that she had classes during the day and would also be looking for a part time job. Of course, the nature of the type of job she was looking at was not spoken of.

There was a knock on the door and Cassie jumped up to open it., She let out a scream of joy as four people piled inside the room. These were her friends, friends she hadn’t seen together in the same room since Nate’s time machine.

“GUYS!” She squealed, hugging the closest person there, in that moment it was Tommy, who awkwardly stood there before gently patting her on the back, “It is so good to see everyone in the same room.” She let Tommy go and made her way through the others, hugging them tightly, “You don’t call, you don’t write. Shame on you.” She told them, given the limited nature of their communication.

“You sounded like my grandmother,” said Billy as Cassie switched to hug him.

“Maybe I was a Jewish grandmother in a past life?” That joke should have been funny, but given Cassie’s death and resurrection it lay flat in the room, “Sorry poor joke. This is my roommate Ji-Eun.” The girl on the other side of the room, by the window stopped what she was doing and turned to the group.

“Hello.”

“The twins are Billy and Tommy, and yeah, despite the hair, this is Kate and Teddy.”

“Nice to meet you.” Said Teddy.

“Nice to meet you too. Are you students here?” asked Ji-Eun.

They shook their heads, “No, just old friends of Cassie.” Said Tommy.

“How are you two settling in?” asked Kate.

“Lots of unpacking.” Said Ji-Eun.  

“We were just going to grab lunch, would you like to join us?” asked Kate, “It’s on me.”

“I thought your dad cut you off,” said Tommy.

Kate waved him off, “So what do you say, lunch?”

“Thank you, but perhaps another time,” replied the girl.

“We’ll hold you to it.” Said Teddy as Cassie grabbed her jacket, phone and keys.

“We have a lot to talk about anyway.” Said Kate.

On the opposite side of town an exhausted young man got out of a taxi, paid the driver and walked up to a modest home in the Bronx.

An older woman flung open the door and pulled the young man into a powerful hug before he could even make a move to knock on the door.

“Eli!” she greeted, “I thought you weren’t coming until Friday.”

“Mom’s still flying in Friday, but I wanted to come early and help out.”

“Help with what?” asked Faith as they entered the house. It was quiet, and felt as if nothing had changed, but something huge had changed.

“The funeral arrangements, of course,” said Eli.

“Oh honey, that’s not necessary, it’s all taken care of already.”

“Mom gave me a check to pass on for the expenses.” Eli dropped his bags by the door and went to grab the check from his backpack.

“It’s not necessarily everything has already been taken care of.”

“How?” asked Eli coming to sit at the breakfast table as Faith put the kettle on.

“It isn’t really a _how_ it’s more of a _who,_ and I just point to what I want, which casket, which flowers, and King T’Challa takes care of everything.” Said Faith nonchalantly as she turned on the kettle and went to the pantry to pull out cookies.

“What?” asked Eli, his jaw dropping to the floor.

Faith looked at her, “Do close your mouth, Eli.”

“How…. what?” he managed to get out. Faith walked across the room and placed the cookies on the table.

“I don’t know the behind the scenes details,” she said as she sat down, “But after…” she took a deep breath, “After it happened…I contacted Captain America, to let him know and two days later I got a call from a woman and I didn’t take it seriously at first. You know when he was invited to the wedding there was this fancy invite and King T’Challa was talking and…anyway, I didn’t believe it when she said the King of Wakanda wanted to pay for the funeral…and I said, sure, and said he should come over and we could have tea.”

“And?”

“And a day after that King T’Challa was sitting in the exact same seat you are, drinking my tea, and telling me what an honor it was that your grandfather came to his wedding. He said it was a shame he couldn’t do more so asked my permission if he could do this for Isaiah. How could I say no?” she stood up as she heard the kettle beep and made tea for herself and Eli.  Faith set the mug down beside her grandson, “And really, who would dare say no to a King.”

“With a smile,” said Eli, “We don’t need him.”

“Eli, haven’t you met King T’Challa?”

That was a good question actually, thought Eli. He had met a lot of the Avengers, and the X-men, hell he even met X-Factor. But no, Eli couldn’t remember ever meeting King T’Challa, “I don’t think so.”

“Well you will,” she said, “Speaking of those you have met, did you tell your friends you were in town?”

“No.” said Eli through his mug.

“Eli,” said Faith softly. She sipped her tea and watched Eli squirm underneath her gaze and hide himself inside his tea mug. He bit down on his cookie if only to keep himself from saying anything. He missed her cookies really badly. Granted he had missed her and he regretted leaving for Arizona only because of the missed time with his grandparents. Still, the decision had been right at the time and was still right. “They still call you know. Tommy especially.”

“Tommy?” asked Eli, “Really?”

“Oh yeah, he swings by about once every two weeks or so. He likes checking in, asks for updates about you to pass along to the others. Sometimes he brings groceries, or last time he visited he brought over this charming desert he got from Turkey.”

“What was Tommy doing in Turkey?” Faith gave him a look he knew all too well. This was the look that said, she knew the answer to this question, but would push Eli to find it for himself.

She grinned, “You should call them.”

“No.” Eli said flatly.

Faith sighed, staring at her cooling tea, “Doesn’t matter now. You’ll see them at the funeral anyway.”

“What?”

“Is that your word the day?” asked Faith.

“They didn’t even know grandpa.”

“But they know you and they know how much he meant to you. Besides lots of people are coming to pay their respects, Captain America asked, so did several other heroes.” She stood up and motioned for him to follow her over.  They walked past the living room where flowers and cards stood and into Isaiah’s study which was covered practically head to toe with cards and flowers and notes.

“That one over there,” she pointed to a red and white card, “Was brought in by Sam Wilson.” She pointed to another one, “That one is from Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Those ones are Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Misty Knight, Danny Rand…and so many others.”

“…and they’re all coming?”

“Yes,” said Faith, “Mr. Cage asked if he could speak at the service.”

Back at Centennial University the former Young Avengers sat at a coffee shop drinking lattes and green teas. It reminded them of their days of hanging out on their superhero headquarters, one no one had set foot in, in far too long.

“So, you got the invitation too?” asked Kate.

“Yeah, I didn’t know Mrs. Bradley knew my address. But it came in the mail. We’re all going, right?”

“Yup!” said Tommy, “Mrs. Bradley’s really excited that so many heroes are coming, though she asked us not to come in costume.”

“Have you seen what some superheroes wear?” asked Billy, “You can’t blame her for that. I mean come on, Hercules.” The others cringed.

Cassie took a big sip of her coffee and put it down like it was a shot of vodka, “I am so happy to be back in New York and doing what I love.”

“And your mom can’t stop you now.” Said Kate.

“A…are you sure Cassie?” asked Billy. “I…mean…”

“I’m sure,” said Cassie, “This is what I’ve been dying to do since well…since I came back. Plus I have the helmet now so there’s more I can do. We have to get the band back together.”

Billy smiled softly, “I did say something about a Young Avengers reunion.”

“Finally! This is long overdue.” Said Tommy.

“I will drink to that,” said Teddy motioning his ice coffee and everyone clunked their plastic cups as an official declaration of reformation of the team formerly known as the Young Avengers.

“Thought for the love of G-d, can we please come up with a better name than Young Avengers before we go public.” Begged Billy and everyone laughed, “Particularly since we’re not kids anymore and that name has a certain juvenile application.” More laughter was heard.

“There’s just one thing missing,” said Teddy.

The other sighed and said, “Eli!” 


	2. A bit more on Eli

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eli Bradley has a long awaited conversation with...no one you'd expect.

Chapter 2

Cassie’s week had been intense. She had taken the equivalent of seven classes. Intro to College Writing, which was decent, there was math, which was okay. Intro to Biology, which had a lab, intro to chemistry which also had a lab adding up to six. The only course left was her freshmen emersion course, where she sat in a room, talking about feelings and how complicated it was to adjust to college life. It annoyed her the most.

Her roommate situation, at the very least had been a blessing, Je-Eun was kind and didn’t play her music too loudly, or keep anybody up at night. She was neat, while Cassie had clutter and was a bit of a spaz in the mornings.

She sat at Billy and Teddy’s apartment, stretch out on the couch with her Chemistry Textbook, going over the beginning of Chapter 1, which she had already gone over in High school and with Uncle Hank.

“Have you guys heard from Eli?” asked Cassie.

“Nope,” said Billy looking up from a history book, “To borrow your line from last week, he doesn’t call, he doesn’t write.”

“We could all be dead and he would never even know.” Protested Cassie as she sat up.

“That’s a bit harsh Cassie,” said Teddy coming back in from the kitchen with a sandwich, “He…it was hard on all of us after what happened with Doom. Maybe this was just his way of coping, by starting a new life.”

“You’re way too nice, Teddy.” Cassie told him. Billy gave a vague nod from behind his book, “But he’ll be at the funeral, right?”

“Tommy said he got a call from Mrs. Bradley confirming it.”  Said Billy.

“Do we need to be concerned about how close he is to Eli’s grandmother?” Cassie asked jokingly.

“No,” said Billy, a smile playing on his lips, “I think it’s a great thing.”

Eli didn’t sleep much the night before the funeral, partially because he was with Lit, Litigious, his younger brother snoring on the cot next to his bed. The kid was almost ten years old already. He had the easiest time in Arizona, according to their mother.  The entire family had arrived the night before and settled between the two extra bedrooms, and little Litigious bunking with Eli.  The other reason he couldn’t sleep was the increased thumping in his chest that refused to subside from the thought of seeing his old friends again.

He tipped toed out of the room and into the kitchen where his older sister sat. Stephanie was only a year older than him and she never let him forget it. She was smart, graduated high school early, and having finished her Masters in Forensic Science with Honors she already had a job offer from a lab in Colorado. She had long beautiful hair, like all the women in the family did, and she always wore it lose and down. She looked the most like Grandma out of everyone.

“Asi and Layla keeping you up?” asked Eli noting the herbal tea she was nursing. Eli’s younger sisters were eighteen and sixteen and used to fight all the time, fight physically that is, hair pulling and everything. They mellowed out as they got older. Less fist fights, more complaining, but the complaining left less bruises.

“No, they’re out like lights.” said Stephanie, “Want some tea?”

Eli shook his head, “What’s keeping you up?”

“Mom and Grandma had a fight.”

“When?”

“When you went to the store,” she wrapped her arms around the tea cup, “Mom wants Grandma to move to Arizona.”

“But grandma would never leave New York.” Said Eli pulling out a piece of cheese from the fridge.

“Hence the fight. Grandma doesn’t want to leave and Mom doesn’t want to leave her alone.”

Munching on the piece of cheese, Eli leaned against the countertop of the kitchen, “So what you’re saying is, as usual, it’s up to us.”

“I can do it.” Said Stephanie, though Eli knew she had her heart set on Colorado.

“No, you can’t,” said Eli.

“There are forensic labs here.”

Eli finished off the cheese and folded his arms, “Steph, you hate New York, I’m the one who wanted to stay here…who….” He sighed, “I can stay…I never should have left.”

Stephanie looked up at him, “So, why did you? You never talked about it.”

Eli sighed refusing to look at his sister. The first week after he had moved in he barely spoke, but slowly he started to socialize, he finished high school, got into ASU and worked his butt off, trying to put away everything that had happened behind him. He sought out a counselor and spoke in euphemism and slowly began to remember who he was as a person and not as a mask. The guilt had remained even when he got a random text from Kate containing two words: _She’s alive._ He knew what it meant and he had called Kate for an explanation. But never Cassie, never Cassie.

“It was…complicated,” he said.

“I know that Eli. I remember what you were like when you came back.”

Eli had a choice to make in that moment and he will admit, it could have gone either way.

“Do you remember the Young Avengers?” asked Eli.

“I guess…you were always the fanboy.” Said Stephanie and in comparison, to some other fan boys he knew, Eli was an amateur.

“They had two women on their team and twins.”

“Actually yeah, I do remember that. They had a guy who blew up the United Nations building right.” That she remembers, thought Eli. He nodded, “Why do you bring it up?”

“Well…do you remember who was on that team?”

“Let’s see there was the guy in the green suit and the literal green guy, the one with the cape, the one who grew, a chick with a bow, a younger looking Vision and Patriot.” She knew his name.

“That would be me.”

He waited for his comment to sing in and at first Stephanie stared blankly at him. But then slowly it sunk in, her eyebrows grew wide and her mouth dropped, “No…. did Grandpa know?”

“He knew,” said Eli.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“Because a week before I moved to Arizona something happened…which made me finally realize that I wasn’t cut out for that kind of life. I was just a dumb kid who wanted to be an Avenger. I didn’t know what the hell I was getting into and I screwed it up. That screw up got a friend of mine killed, two friends actually. I had no business galivanting as a superhero.”

“Stature, right? Isn’t she going by Stinger.”

“Yeah, she’s a live…now…and this Vision…isn’t that Vision.”

“And you still feel this guilt, like you're not good enough??”

“Not so much anymore,” Eli admitted, “Do you remember those 8am appointment I had in college?”

“You said you were taking early shifts at the library.”

“My shifts on those days started at 9:30.” He looked at the ceiling and saw the crack he had made years ago, playing soccer in the house. “I was seeing someone.”

“Counselor?”

“Yeah. I spoke in euphemisms and tried to work through the guilt. I think she thought I was some kind of spy or something and kept telling me to reach out to my teammates…but…”

“But you couldn’t?” Stephanie noted, “No one? At all?”

“No. I would get texts and such but they subsided with time.”

“Did she ever tell you why you couldn’t call them or send an email?”

“She said I’m afraid of being sucked into that world again, so I distance myself from it to try to salvage a sense of security and normalcy.”

“And was she, right?” Eli sighed. This was so not the conversation to have at 4 am.

“She was half-right. It’s not about my security. I’m scared that if I do get sucked into this world again, I will screw up and it will lead to someone else’s death, or worse…”

Stephanie nursed her mug again and watched as the sun rose from a distance. There was nothing particularly cathartic or inspiring that she could say, “Thanks for confiding in me. We haven’t talked like this since…. well…” It was true, neither one could actually remember a heart to hear conversation. Stephanie had always been the one to take care of Mom and their younger siblings. Eli was always the one devoted, almost exclusively to their grandparents.

“Thanks for being my sister,” said Eli fondly turning to the fridge, “Want to help me make breakfast?” Stephanie smiled and got up from the table.

“I do…but just so you know. I always thought Patriot was pretty cool.” She admitted to him and went to grab the skillets.

That morning Cassie was frazzling around, first finding her black dress buried at one end of her closet, behind her winter coat. Then it was scrambling for her shoes, and flipping back and forth,  gathering her shrunken suit and helmet into her purse while also stuffing clothes into her duffel bag.

Ji-Eun was watching this with a bemused expression as Cassie ran around the room gathering everything she needed.

“It’s a bit early to go on a date, isn’t it? Got an interview?” asked Ji-Eun after Cassie had changed into a simple black dress and flats.

“Funeral actually,” said Cassie, “For a friend’s grandfather.”

“I’m so sorry,” She swiveled on her desk chair to face Cassie, “Did you know him well? Was he the grandfather of one of those friends I met on move-in day?”

“No. This is Eli’s grandfather he was a war hero.” She put on her shoes and checked her phone, “Kate’s out front, I’ll be back in time for my class Monday.”

She ran out of the dorm, her tiny heels dropping onto the vomit colored carpet that lined the dorm hallways right to the exit. Right outside sat Kate inside her purple convertible.

“Purple convertible,” she noted, though she had seen it before, “It’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think?” Kate just grinned as Cassie tossed her duffel bag into the back and pulled her seatbelt. Kate fixed the sunglasses which had been hanging loosely on her nose and they headed out to the funeral, “Boys meeting us at the funeral?”

“Yup! People who can run at super speed and fly apparently don’t need to be picked up in style.” The girls laughed, “Just like old times.”

“Old times?” asked Cassie leaning back in her seat, “Like hopping the fence into Avengers mansion?”

“And tossing Eli like a hot potato.” Added Kate as the wind flew through their hair and the sun shined bright on the fall day.

They had to park pretty far back as the lot was filled with all sorts of vehicles, everything from the cheapest of cars to expensive bullet-proof limousines with different flags.

“Israel, UK, South Africa, Tanzenia, Ghana, Rwanda, Japan, Wakanda…” Kate listed off the flags of various nations as they passed them.

The gust of wind which usually followed by stronger bears of sarcasm blew past them, stopping in front of a jeep.

“Hi Tommy,” they said and the speedster offered them his arms.

“Billy and Teddy are waiting by the entrance. I just saw Mia Love and Condoleezza Rice walk in and Black Panther.” He said, “There are also really scary Wakandan women patrolling the parameter.”

“They didn’t go in yet?” asked Kate referring to the others.

“No,” Tommy offered Kate and Cassie his arms, “Teddy thinks we should all walk in together. Send a message of unity.” Cassie raised her eyebrow, “Those were his words, not mine. You ladies know, I am a solo act.”

The girls took his arms and walked towards the building.

Meanwhile, not too much higher than the Empire State Building a large, white sandwich looking spaceship appeared. White in color, the ship looked as if it came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing.

“Bzzt, sir,” said a stimuloid, “We have arrived on the indicated date.”

The man sitting inside the main deck of the ship, with a purple helmet smiled, “Excellent.” He stood form his throne-line seat, “I shall see to this myself.” The helmet’s facial features changed into an evil grin.


	3. Gray Area

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Isaiah's funeral....and a newer friend makes an appearance...but what's he up to?

The Young Avengers walked in together into the large venue, roughly the size of a small convention center. Picked due to its simplicity and Isaiah’s love for the community he lived in. It was packed between family and friends, superheroes in civilian clothing, and national and international representatives from the US Congress to the president of South Africa.

 They spotted Faith waving to them all the way down in front where a stage had been set up and a podium, but no coffin, just a large banner with Isaiah’s face on it.

“Why no coffin?” asked Cassie as they walked towards the waving grandmother.

“Faith said Isaiah had clear instructions for his death…” said Tommy, “I’m not sure what that means, but, I guess it means this is more of a memorial than a funeral.”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Junior gang,” said Luke Cage approaching them with his wife and four-year-old daughter.

“Hi Luke,” said Teddy, shaking his hand before crouching down to face the little girl standing between her parents, “How are you Dani?” he asked her, “You’ve gotten so big.”

“I’m four now,” she told him, holding up four fingers.

“It’s good to see you, Cassie,” said Jessica, “How’s your dad?”

“He’s good, he has a place in the city now, says I can stay with him anytime I want. But I’m in the dorms of Centennial for now.”

“Do you have a major yet?”

“Freshman don’t declare, but I’m leaning towards chemical engineering. We’ll see.” Jessica looked on impressed by her answer. She had always saw Cassie as a strong and capable girl and this was certainly on par with what she had known about the girl over the years. Between stealing Pym Particles and wanting to help others, Cassie had her head together better than Jessica did at that age. It was good to see her young, healthy, and full of energy. “And the rumors about….”

“Oh yeah, those are true,” she said lowering head. Her dad, getting her powers back, the helmet, the bad guys, the trial, all true.

“Well, we’re glad to have you back,” said Luke pulling her into a quick hug, “We’ll leave you to it, then. Good luck with you-know-who.” Anyone else would have thought they were talking about Voldemort as Luke nudged his head towards the end of the rows upon rows of chairs where Eli stood talking with his mother.

He glanced briefly out of the corner of his eye and saw his old friends enter the building, making no indication he noticed them he turned his focus back on his mother.

“Mom, I don’t think it’s a good idea to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do,” said Eli.

“I know that Eli,” said Sarah-Gail, “But what choice is there? I can’t move back to New York again, not with my job and you and Stephanie have a life to lead. She has to face the reality that she can’t stay here anymore. Wouldn’t she want a fresh start?”

“Grandma doesn’t need a fresh start though. She knows what she wants,” Eli took a deep breath, “Mom, I’ll move back.”

Sarah Gail sighed, “Eli, honey, you can’t uproot your life. It’s not your responsibility.”

“And you have enough responsibility with three other kids still living at home,” he finished to her, “I gave it a lot of thought since Steph mentioned it. I want to do this. It’s what Grandpa would want. I can get a job here.”

Sarah-Gail did not look convinced and she folded her arms and took a step to the side. She spotted someone who looked familiar, having seen them in pictures before, “We’ll talk about this at home.” She told him and walked towards her other children with a small smile playing on her lips.

Eli look to where his mother’s gaze had gone temporary and slumped his shoulders. Great. Just great. Grandma had officially gone crazy, inviting all these superheroes and his teammates, people who barely knew his grandfather if they knew him at all.

Sam Wilson was the first to approach him, “Hey Eli.”

“Hi Sam,” he said awkwardly, “I hear you’re Captain America now…is that right?”

“For now,” said Sam with a wink, “At least until someone comes along...” Eli just stared blankly at him. Sam turned to Isaiah’s banner. “I’ll see you later. We should talk…you know…after.”

“Uh…s…sure.” He said before the world inverted on him. Sam moved to take a seat when his gaze returned down the aisle. There was Cassie, chatting away with Jessica Jones. There was a bit more talking, Eli could tell they were catching up and it seemed like Tommy had told a funny joke.

 As Jess and Luke took Danielle to find seats, Cassie turned towards the aisle, looking directly at Eli.

Slowly, as if she could not move any faster she walked towards him, with the others following behind, cautiously, like stalking a rabbit, one had to be quiet and stealthy, and slow as not to scare away the prey. Eli wasn’t prey, but he was the rabbit in the situation, outnumbered and with few exit options.

“Hi Eli,” she said and pulled her arms around him, “I’m sorry about your grandfather.” Eli couldn’t make so much as a squeak as he returned the gesture, hugging her tightly. Just tight enough to make sure she was in fact real, but not so tight that his powers would cause her pain. It was unreal. There she was, the youngest, and still the youngest person of their old team.

“I…um…” he began, and spotted the others had approached while the two were hugging.

“Eli,” said Kate coldly, colder than the smiles he got from Billy and Teddy. Hell, thought Eli, Tommy looked happier to see him that Kate.

“It’s so good to finally see you,” said Cassie finally releasing him.

“Y…you too,” Eli chocked out. He cleared his throat, “Uh…. thanks for coming.”  It was Cassie’s sweet, innocent smile that pushed him to really look at the others.

“We wanted to be here,” said Billy, with everyone standing there awkwardly, “How’s Arizona? Do you like it?”

“Mrs. Bradley mentioned you graduated from ASU, right?” asked Tommy, “We keep in touch.”

“That’s….um...nice,” said Eli unaware of how else to respond, “But yeah, finished ASU…now I’m just trying to figure out what else to do with my degree in Archiving and Museum studies.”

Okoye, one of the first women to be part of the Wakandan Royal Guard stood at the podium, “Everyone, please take your seats, we will begin in a moment. After speeches we will adjourn to the dining room for food.” Everyone moved out of the way and the gang sat down behind the Bradley family.

Faith was, of course the first at the podium, “Isaiah was a man who never wanted to be made a spectacle out of, which is why his coffin is not here. I am amazed to see so many people here today. Between world leaders and superheroes and family and friends…” she trailed off, holding back tears.

Far outside the city, over the Tapan Zee Bridge, more in New Jersey, really, stood an old abandoned farm. Its owners abandoned it somewhere around the first Kree-Skrull war on earth and, at one point, it was a hide out for a C-list Spider-Man Villain.

The ship which had circled around the city for a week, studying its victims, looking for the right time to strike, realized all too quickly that the time had been all wrong. The great man of time had miscalculated and was now forced to park his ship, in cloaked form, at an old abandoned, creaky old, grime smothered, farm.

Scanners appeared out of nowhere and flew around, looking for signs of life, but verifying the lack of human activity in the immediate vicinity.

A man, clad in green robes and purple helmet, descended from the ship and looked around. Movement in the barn caught the attention of one of the scanners and Kang entered.

 _“Male, African-American, early twenties,”_ reported the readout from the barn.

Kang sauntered into the barn as only an Emperor and master of time would, and looked out at the dark corners of the barn. “Show yourself!” He shouted loudly.

A young man with glasses stepped out of the shadow, his arms folded, wearing a checkered button down shirt and brown slacks.

“Hello Kang, my name is David.”

“David….” Said Kang and ran through the list of people he knew, the suit helping him narrow down the list, “I do not know you.”

“But I know you, Kang the Conqueror.”

Kang laughed, as if there was anyone who didn’t know him, “And why should I not vaporize you into the previous century?”

“Because you have something I want, and I have something you need.”

“And what might that be?” Demanded Kang, the other man’s mouth formed an excited grin.

Back in the city and at the funeral, everyone sat silently as Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, aka current Captain America stood at the podium. Oddly enough, Eli noticed, Steve Rogers was not present.

“It was a great honor when I was asked to escort Isaiah to Wakanda. He was more than just a man, to a lot of us he was a hero, a predecessor, and an inspiration. On the flight, he was quiet, like he was throughout his adventure, but the smile on his face never left him. This wasn’t some kind of military jet either, it was a fancy private jet. It was a pleasure to travel with him and while he did not speak, he kept egging me on to play cards, or to tell him stories about the Avengers. He wanted to hear my stories. Years later, I was asked to take a new title, and not Falcon Cap, as has been reported by the Daily Bugle.” Some people laughed, “Before I gave my answer I went to see Isaiah.”

Eli stared in shock, he had heard that Sam Wilson had become Captain America, but not that he had actually gone to see his grandfather.

“Isaiah had tears in his eyes and having his support gave me the courage to take on this mantle of being Captain America. But I know that this is a temporary title. It does not belong to me, and one day, I hope to honor Isaiah and pass it on to someone else who would carry the flag with pride, who would be brave and stay true to Isaiah’s memory.” The Young Avengers nodded to Sam and turned their gaze to Eli. He slumped in his seat and hoped a big hole would swallow him up and deposit him anywhere but where he was.

Other people spoke as well, Luke spoke about how he had the pleasure to meet Isaiah in Wakanda and a bit about their shared history of prison and experimentation. As Luke left the podium and Sarah Gail stepped up, a buzz was head from Tommy’s phone.

“Guys, we’ve got trouble, unknown assailants swarming the city,” he read off from the screen quietly.

Teddy patted Eli’s shoulder in front of him, “Sorry buddy, trouble calls.” They all stood up, “You’re more than welcome to come with, for old times’ sake.”

“Thanks,” Eli said, “But no thanks. I am never putting on that costume again.” His friends gave him a sad look before leaving quietly out the back.

They changed quickly and hopped inside a bubble Billy made, to quickly and easily transport them downtown.

The city was swarming with robots. “Is Ultron attacking again?” asked Stinger, as Speed zoomed past her to assess the situation around them.

“Not Ultron bots,” said Speed, “Not Doombots either…they’re like an ugly purple action figure of some lurch character.”

Wiccan, Hulkling, and Stinger exchanged a frightened look before turning to the incoming swarm of purple suited, humanoid, robots attacking the city.

“They look like,” began Stinger flying up into the air to get a better look, “They are. They’re…”

“Hawkeye, I think you better call Eli.” Sais Wiccan.

“Does this mean what I think it means?” asked Hawkeye

“Call Eli,” said Wiccan and charged to the forces. Speed took that to mean yes.

“I’ll get him,” said Speed and was gone before the sentence could be absorbed by his teammates.


	4. Eli and the Horse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, he gets back on it. But did it really do anything?

Eli breathed a sigh of relief after his friends had left. Okay, so seeing Cassie alive was nice, and being able to see his old friends was actually kind of great. But that didn’t change anything. He was not going to be a superhero again, nope, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. No amount of side eyes and comments about being a legacy would get him to put that suit on again.

Oddly enough, he wasn’t even sure where his suit was. He had taken it off thrown it somewhere and forgot where. That’s how he preferred it.

His phone vibrated, going unanswered.

Sarah Gail finished her speech and one of the representatives from South Africa stood up, apparently having met Isaiah on a visit with Nelson Mandela. Eli wanted to be interested, but his mind was preoccupied with what was next. He was moving back to Grandma’s house, and he would need to have his things sent to him, plus finding a job...he was creating a long and erroneous list of everything he needed to do. There was so much that needed to be done.

But at the top was convincing Grandma. Faith was an incredibly strong and resilient, not to mention independent, woman. She wouldn’t want anyone to fuss over her, Eli had learned that when she had broken her ankle, shortly before he had become a Young Avenger. He twitched at that.

He stood up and walked outside to get some air and to remember to breathe again. The air wasn’t cool, and it wasn’t warm, it was just there, like it usually was in New York.

“Oh, good, you’re outside.” Said Speed.

“Not now.” Said Eli harshly, “I told you…”

“Would you shut up and listen to me for two seconds,” snapped Speed harshly, “It’s not all about you, you know.” Eli closed his mouth and motioned for the speedster to continue, “There’s an invasion of Growing Men swarming the city.”

“What?” Eli gasped, “Do you mean…”

“Yeah, Growing Men.”

“But…”

“This is a family thing,” said Speed, “And like it or not you are a part of this family and this affects you. We need you out there.” Eli turned away from Tommy taking slow, calculated breaths. “I don’t have time to debate this with you.”

“I can’t, Speed. I’m sorry.”

“You know, Spider-Man told me once that with great power comes great responsibility. We’re downtown if you change your mind. Growing Men appearing in the city can only mean one thing—on the east side of central park.” Speed was gone before Eli could fully absorb all his words. He didn’t see where the speedster had disappeared to, but understood that it was likely inside because Luke Cage and Falcon…r…Captain America left, he saw Misty Knight and Danny Rand sneak out quickly to where a green blur had zoomed back towards the city.

“You know, Eli, Isaiah was always really proud of you.” Said Faith stepping outside to join her grandson, her cute, yet large blue bag, firmly on her shoulder.

“I know that…” he said quietly.

“Speed said you’re needed,” said Faith. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, honest. She had walked out to check on him and saw him talking to the white-haired superhero.

“Yeah, well, Speed has a big mouth.” Eli leaned against the side of the building.

“He had a point though. I always thought you’d put the suit on again.” She opened her bag and pulled out Eli’s old suit. Did she have that bag when they’d left the house? Why hadn’t he seen it until that moment.

“I can’t.”

“Well Elijah, the world needs you. I don’t want to guilt you into doing this, but it seems like this is a huge thing that’s happening and they wouldn’t have just asked you to come and help if they didn’t think you needed to be there.”

“It’s nothing.” Said Eli firmly, “The Avengers can handle it.”

Stephanie burst out from the building, “Grandma, Eli, it looks like whatever’s happening is huge, those purple things are all over the city. The Daily Bugle’s twitter is on fire.”

Something didn’t quite make sense. The last time the Growing Man attacked it had been Kang searching for his younger self. Kang always had a plan and everything he did, there was a purpose. There was a logic to his megalomania…wasn’t there? Eli always thought so.

“Well, Elijah?” demanded Grandma, her hands on her hips, “Are you going to stand here and mope or do something?”

Eli let out a deep breath, he was going to regret this, he thought. His hands slowly wrapped around the fabric of his costume as Stephanie looked on, seeing it in person for the first time.

“Good luck,” said Stephanie giving him a quick hug, “And don’t let anything distract you from heling your friends.” He wanted to thank her. Instead she ended up giving him an idea. He gave Grandma a quick kiss and ran off to change and go to his friends.

The area felt like it was an invasion, brief flashbacks to getting shot had to be put behind him, as he spotted Wiccan in the air.

“Hey, Wiccan.” Turning, Wiccan smiled and floated down.

“Thank you for coming…this…” he began.

“Is a family thing,” replied Patriot, “I know. Listen. None of this makes sense. Kang wouldn’t just launch a pointless attack. This has to be a distraction.”

“Our scans didn’t reveal Kang anywhere near the vicinity,” said Speed zooming by, “That would certainly explain a lot.”

“You have scans?” asked Patriot

“Between Wiccan’s magic and Stinger’s ant friends, as well as Hulklings shape-shifting and my speed, yeah, we’ve got it covered.”

“We need you on the south side,” said Wiccan, “Hawkeye’s being overwhelmed and I have to get back to air cover with FalconCap.”

“That’s not his name,” said Patriot, but both laughed.

“Need a ride?” asked Speed and already took off before Patriot could respond. A second later he was on one edge of the park, hurling onto the ground. “That’s not superheroic.”

“Can it,” snapped Patriot, “I haven’t had to speed through anything in years, my stomach got used to living at normal speed.”

“Yeah, well, we can chat about that later.” Speed looked ready to move after giving Eli a com device to place in his ear.

“Speed, do me a favor, search for Kang’s ship outside this radius.” Patriot said as he put the com into his ear. He caught one of the growing men and hit him with the full might of his powers. It didn’t grow. Odd.

“Sure, but why?”

“I think this is all a distraction.”

“On it,” Speed gave a fake salute, and was gone within a giant green streak. He ran the entire city once, looking over banks, the UN building, no lost love there, Wall Street, a few jewelry stores even, no sign of anything out of the ordinary…well for New York, anyway.

While Tommy was running all over the city, the Avengers and the former Young Avengers who thus far had no particular team name for themselves, were fighting as best they could, keeping the civilians protected (those that had been too stupid to get out of the way initially), and trying to stop the growing men.

“How did we stop them last time?” asked Hawkeye shooting two growing men with her bow, the two dropped to the ground, and appeared to short-circuit, but were slowly fixing themselves.

“I used my powers, but even then, they kind of pretty much subdued themselves.” Said Wiccan.

“And that’s after Iron Lad revealed himself and they transmitted their coordinates to Kang,” added Patriot, “I think this is a distraction for something bigger.”

“Would bigger constitute a giant ship coming toward us?” asked Hulkling pushing a pile of growing men out of the way.

“I got it,” said Cassie, growing as big as she could to grab the ship. It opened with an oddly colored beam which shrunk her back to her original size, “Hey, what the…” another beam then grabbed her pulling her inside the ship.

“STINGER!” Called Wiccan and flew to her, he used his magic to disrupted the tractor beam, to no avail. With Cassie being sucked in, the beam set its sight on Wiccan. “Guys, we’re not going to need help here.”

Patriot through a growing man right at the beam, to try to knock Billy and Cassie out of its clutches. It soared through the sky and right through the beam, as if it did not register the foreign object at all.

“We gotta do something,” said Hawkeye, shooting an arrow at the source of the beam and having it retract.

Hulkling flew towards it, “I think I can break the beam.”

“Do it!” said Patriot. Other heroes joined in, trying to disrupt the beam and get Wiccan and Stature out, who were helpless against its power. But the beam absorbed Wiccan and Stinger and vanished instantly into the time stream.

“Damn it!”

Speed arrived as the growing man dusted themselves off and began taking off, flying out of the city. He ran around the perimeter to make sure all the growing men were leaving before joining the team again.

“Okay, how did Wiccan manage that?” asked Speed as everyone converged on his location. The looks on their faces worried him, “So where is he? Where’s Stinger?”

“Kang took them.”

“WHAT?” demanded Tommy, the ground around him shaking.

“Billy and Cassie will be fine,” said Teddy putting a hand on his shoulder. But Tommy was gone before Teddy’s arm could touch him.

Tommy searched for hours, first around Manhattan, then the Bronx, Queens, the entire city and Coney Island, he even checked in Jersey. Bleh, New Jersey. But there was no sign of the Kang’s ship, Cassie or Billy.

Exhausted, frustrated and angry, he stumbled into the newly reconstituted Bishop Publishing Building, their headquarters once again.

The others had ordered pizza and were sitting around for debrief over the situation. Tommy zipped to grab a slice of the stuffed crust and plopped, exhaustedly beside Kate, “They’re not in the city.”

“What?” asked Eli.

“I ran through the entire city and parts of New Jersey, wherever Kang has them, they’re not in either one of those places.” He finished off the pizza in record time and grabbed another slice before the others could blink. “So what’s the plan?”

“Kang won’t hurt him, or Cassie,” said Eli.

“And you know this for a fact how?” asked Tommy, “IF this is Kang, Kang, we don’t know what he’ll do.

“If it’s really Iron Lad…considering what happened the last time we saw him, I’m not really comfortable with just leaving them there alone with him.” Said Teddy.

“What choice do we have?” asked Kate.

That was an excellent question. Did they have options? Could they do something, anything except wait? Looking around at the blazing monitors

“I have an idea.” Said Teddy running over to the monitor.

“Did you get a degree in computer sciences?” asked Eli.

“You hang out with AIM long enough, you pick up a thing or two,” said Teddy, “Our computers search police scanners and monitor for any atmospheric disturbances.”

“Like black holes or alien invasions,” said Kate proud of the tech she got for the clubhouse.

Teddy started typing, “Right, and if I tweak the sensors just a tad.” He began typing, “And turn their attention here.” He continued typing for a minute, the other three heroes watching silently, “And voila.” He hit enter. “So, I’m not exactly a tech expert here, but I think I managed to rework our sensors to sweep for temporal anomalies, and residue we associate with Kang’s technology.”

“Our archives have something about his unique signature,” said Kate remembering their files, “This is brilliant Teddy.” She patted him on the back.

Eli smiled and nodded in agreement. But his mind was still lost on his earlier thought. The fight had been a distraction, as Kang never joined in the fight. Not until he got what he wanted and came to get Cassie and Billy. So, what purpose did they have? Nate had fallen for Cassie, so naturally if he remembered his adventure from a few years ago, he would want to take Cassie. As creepy, as that was, it made sense.

Billy being taken worried him on a different level. He knew both of his friends were capable of holding their own in difficult situations, having seen some of it first-hand. But Billy’s powers knew no limits, and if Kang knew that, they were in trouble.


End file.
